PARIS, October 29 (RIA Novosti) - The Strasbourg court has fined Russia 130,000 euros ($192,000) over the disappearance in 2000 of three people in its North Caucasus republic of Chechnya, the court said in a press release on Thursday.
The three cases concerned the applicants' allegations that their close relatives disappeared in Chechnya after having been detained by Russian servicemen, the European Court of Human Rights said.
Mairudin Khantiyev, 37, was taken away by a group of armed men in camouflage uniforms in the Chechen capital of Grozny in December 2000.
Yusup Sabatayev, 32, and Kazbek Vakhayev, 35, were arrested on 23 February and 1 August, 2000, respectively.
According to the court, although the Russian government admitted the detention of both Satabayev and Vakhayev, it failed to provide any documents to confirm the arrests, subsequent detention or release.
"The applicants maintained that their relatives had never been released, and they had subsequently identified from video footage their relatives' bodies which had been found near the village of Goy-Chu," the court said.
The court accused the Russian authorities of an unjustified use of "lethal force by their agents" or failure to otherwise account for the deaths. It also found that Russia had conducted no effective investigations into the three disappearances.
Therefore, the court judged that the applicants be awarded a total of 114,000 euros ($168,225) of damages, and 16,540 euros ($24,360) for costs and expenses.
